Seven years later
by Pistachio Torte
Summary: Seven years after the war has ended, they find that Hiiro may still be alive. What will Relena think? What will Duo do? How will this end! FINISHED
1. Default Chapter

I do not own anything, please read and review! 

Chapter 1:

The beginning

"Duo! Are you even listening to me?!" Sally Poe slammed her hands down on the table in front of him. He looked up at her lazily.

"Sure." He yawned and sat back in his chair, "You were telling us that we need to be careful on this mission and that you weren't going to make us do it, and that it is totally on a voluntary basis…" He babbled on, repeating what she always told them.

The four Gundam pilots had been called to the headquarters by Sally. She had told them that there was an emergency that needed taking care of. All of them had come, of course. Hiiro was the only one that had chosen not to attend. It had been seven years since the war, and they were all beginning to doubt that he was even still alive. He was more like a legend to them than anything else. 

"Thank you, Duo. I'm glad that you were listening." Sally said, turning back to the charts on the wall that she was showing them. A 22 year old Chang Wufei glared at the grinning Duo. He knew what was going on, even if Sally getting too old to catch it. Wufei was wearing a dark blue suit, like the suit that Treize Kushrenada wore. He still had a Treize complex after all this time. Even after the fact that he had been the one to kill him. He had finally given up and cut his shiny black hair to a reasonable length, after he had lice a year ago. He was trying to grow it out again, but it hadn't grown much in the time.

Duo laid back in his seat, pulling his cap over his eyes. He flopped his feet on the table, crossing his legs and yawning loudly. Sally continued her lecture. Sally was starting to get gray hair, showing her age of forty. She was still very active in the Peacekeeping Corps, and the stress was showing on her face. She was starting to get fine wrinkles around her mouth and eyes. However, her green eyes still shone with kindness and strength.

Next to Duo was Quatre Raberba Winner. He was dressed up in a fine white suit, as you would expect from one of the richest families on the colony. He had his wavy blond hair neatly styled and wore jewels at many points on his outfit. Duo would have thought he had gone soft, if he didn't know that Quatre used a lot of his spare time to train, just in case he needed to use his skills ever again.

Across from Quatre was Trowa Barton. He was wearing a gray business suit and had his hair the way that he always did, in his face. He was now the owner of a circus that specialized in lion performances. He had a few workers, but mainly trained the lions by himself. 

Sally was just turning off the lights to start the image projector when Relena Peacecraft walked in. All the men stood politely as she came in and sat down on the other side of Duo. 

"Sorry for being late." Relena apologized to Sally. Sally smiled and continued with her lecture.

"What kept you?" Duo whispered to Relena. Wufei glared at Duo again, but didn't say anything. At the moment, the other pilots were still sore at Duo for marrying Hiiro's girlfriend. They all thought that she shouldn't be married, in tribute to the legend, but they all knew that someone had to take care of her after all this time.

"The business meeting went for longer than I had expected." Relena whispered back, "Fill me in?" Duo grinned and put his arm around his wife, whispering to her all the things that Sally had told them so far, which wasn't much. 


	2. The choice

I don't own anything! Please read and review!

Chapter 2:

The choice

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Wufei, from his seat, was getting annoyed. That stupid Duo and his stupid woman. They were disrupting the meeting, and didn't care much at all. 

"Wufei, are you listening?" Sally asked, looking at him. Wufei smiled and stood. 

"Sally, I know what you're going to say. I was the one who put the file together for you, remember?" Wufei walked to the door, "I don't want to waste my time running after ghosts." He slammed the door after him.

"Is that how you all feel?" Sally asked, looking at the others. Trowa stared at Sally with no expression, his chin resting on his hands. 

"If Hiiro is really alive, then he needs no help from us. He is the strongest of us all." Trowa stood and started putting his papers away in his briefcase.

"You too, Quatre?" Sally asked, as he sat there thoughtfully.

"I think that Trowa and Wufei are right. If we had some proof or evidence that Hiiro Yui is really alive, it might be different. Please call me again, if you find anything, Miss Sally." Quatre shook her hand as he walked by. He was really very friendly, even when things were difficult.

Sally looked at Duo and Relena. They were now the only ones left in the room, "And what do you say, Duo Maxwell?"

Duo wished that he had time to think it through. He really didn't like getting put on the spot like that. Especially when it was such an important subject. He could feel his wife tense next to him. He wanted to think about her too. What would happen if Hiiro did come back alive? She really loved him for a long time. 

"Duo?" Sally asked, as he stood up and put his cap on his head tighter. Duo grinned at her.

"It's dangerous, right? Count the god of death in on this one." He took Relena's hand and they walked out of the room, leaving Sally there, smiling.

"I knew I could count on you," She watched him chat to his wife as they walked away, "god of death."


	3. Ch 3

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Please read and review!

Thank you!

Chapter 3

"Be careful." Relena said with a worried look on her face, "I didn't like it when Hiiro did dangerous things, and I don't like it when you do them either."

Duo kissed his wife briefly, "Just stay here this time, okay? I'll be back with him if he's alive." He finished putting his equipment in his bag and took off, waving as he jumped out the window.

"Duo…" Relena said, running over to the window, "Next time, use the door!"

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Jeff Seals was a guard for the OZ Remainder. They were the soldiers that believed that war could still be accomplished, even after Treize's death and Marimeia's abandonment of their cause. He wanted to make space a better place, and believed in their cause totally. He just didn't see the point of being a useless guard in a empty prison. No one ever came here anymore, not even his superiors. There was no room for growth in this dead-end job. 

He noticed a dark shadow out of the corner of his eyes, but didn't bother going to see what it was. His imagination played tricks of that sort on him often, and anyway, who would want to come here. He felt a sudden pain in his neck and fell foreword, completely unconscious.

Duo caught the guard's body, making sure that it didn't make a noise as he wasn't sure of how many guards there were. Sally's information was sketchy at best and was no help to him at all.

He snuck around in the prison until he realized that there were no other guards there. He started opening doors without trying to see if anyone was in there. After quite some time, he finally found what he was looking for.

Hiiro sat on the floor of a prison cell in some rags of clothing and looked very surprised to see someone come into his room.

"Hiiro! Bud! You're alive!" Duo said, rushing over to him, "Why didn't you leave? The door was unlocked and there was only one guard out there!"

Hiiro stood to his feet, wiping off the dust that had gathered on his clothing, "I had no reason to leave."

"Well, you do now. Let's get out of here!" Duo said, grabbing Hiiro's wrist and dragging him along after him, "Relena's going to be so happy!"

"Relena……?" Hiiro asked quietly, as if he was afraid to believe it.

"Yeah. We all thought you were dead." Duo chattered as they walked along, "It was shocking when Sally said that you might be held prisoner here. I wouldn't have come, but Relena thought that I should, and who can argue with my wife, you know?" Duo stopped just a bit too late.


	4. Ch 4

I don't own anything! 

Please read and review!

Thank you!

Chapter 4

Hiiro stared at Duo, "You married Sally Poe?"

"Uhh…" Duo said, looking worried for a moment, "Maybe we shouldn't talk about this here, now. Let's get out of here!" Duo rushed off down the hallway. Hiiro followed him.

When they stopped to rest, it was on Duo's spaceship.

"I'll call Sally and report real quick, Hiiro. You can go and get something to eat if you want. There's some food back there, I think." Duo said, waving Hiiro away. He went into the back room, and Duo dialed up Sally's number.

"Duo!" She seemed pleased to hear from him, "How is your mission coming along?"

"I got Hiiro out, Sally, but I have a bit of a problem." Duo said, quickly, "What do I do about Relena? I already almost spilled the beans about me and her!"

"Oh, Duo, I was worried about this." Sally said, sighing, "Has Hiiro said anything about Relena himself?"

"He said her name once. He said it strangely, though." Duo said, frowning in confusion, "What does that have to do with it?"

"I was hoping not to have to tell you this, Duo." Sally said, sighing, "You remember the prison that Hiiro was held in?

"Yeah." Duo said, nodding, "I'm with you so far."

"That used to be one of our old Rebel bases. We sent Hiiro there once he became useless." Sally said.

"Useless? What are you saying, Sally? You sent him there?" Duo was really confused now.

"He became useless when he found out that he had no reason to live. The Zero system told that to him. When he first disappeared, actually he had taken his Gundam and went to train on the third moon of Saturn for just in case we needed him again." Sally started to explain.

"Wait a minute!" Duo interrupted, "Wasn't the third moon the one that exploded?"

"Yes, it was." Sally said, "That was when the Zero system was damaged. The Gundam, to survive, implanted parts of itself into Hiiro's brain."

"What?" Duo asked, "How is that possible?"

***********

What do you think? Please review! 

Again, sorry that it's so short! 


	5. Duo, FINAL!

I own nothing!

Duo Fic!

Final Chapter!

Tears are not enough

"What?" Duo asked, "How is that possible?" 

"How could he survive, you mean?" Sally asked. Duo nodded, so she continued, " It seems that his training as an assassin had changed his metabolism anyway, so he would never be normal."

"I live because I have to, Maxwell." Hiiro startled both Duo and Sally. Duo quickly switched off the com system and turned around.

"How long were you standing there?" Duo asked, nervously as Hiiro munched on a piece of celery. Hiiro's gaze hardened.

"Long enough." He said simply, "There's a light flashing on the controls."

"What?" Duo said, turning quickly. "Oh. It says that we're going to be docking in a few minutes."

Hiiro nodded, with no expression. 

"Sorry for being so jumpy, man. There's been rumors of mobile suits attacking around here recently." Duo apologized to the man, who was already preparing for landing procedures.

**************

"Duo! Hiiro!" Relena yelled, running up and hugging them both as they walked out of the docking area.

"Relena…" Hiiro said, emotionlessly.

"What are you doing here?" Duo asked, hugging her.

"We knew you'd make it, so we all came to greet you!" Relena released Duo and waved to the other Gundam pilots that were approaching at a less than fast pace.

"So, you all knew that the great Duo would triumph!" Duo asked, laughing dominantly. To his annoyance, everyone ignored him and went to greet Hiiro.

"Nice you're back." Trowa said.

"I'm glad you're alive Hiiro!" Quatre exclaimed.

"Feh." Wufei scoffed, "You made it."

"Relena…" Hiiro said, eyes locked on her. 

"Hiiro…" She blushed under his gaze, still clinging to Duo.

"We should all go to Quatre's house and reminisce there." Duo smiled nervously, keeping his arm around his wife.

"Why **_my_** house?" Quatre protested at that.

"Because!" Duo said mischievously, "Your house is the biggest and moreover, it's the cleanest!"

"But still…!" Quatre protested again.

"We won't have time." Hiiro said. Everyone turned to him. He had his eyes glued to a flock of dots approaching in the sky.

"Is that…?" Wufei said, unbelieving.

"Mobile suits! Run for it!" Trowa yelled, as they ran for the large building.

"Right now, I wish that we had kept our Gundams around here." Duo swore as they ducked inside the building.

"Actually…" 

**************

"You brought our Gundams?" Duo smirked as they opened the launching chute, "I still can't believe it."

"Get ready!" Quatre shouted, "Here they come!"

They fought for a while. It seemed as though they were getting lost in the depths, and there were still more coming.

"Fool!" Wufei shouted, "What's he doing out here?"

The Gundam pilots turned to see Hiiro, sitting in the midst of the battlefield.

"Get out of there!" Duo shouted as he piloted for where Hiiro was sitting. Then he saw why Hiiro was sitting there. It was where the docking center had been. Now it was rubble. And Relena was injured. It was fatal. Even Duo could tell that from where he was in the Gundam. Panicked, he jumped from his Gundam and rushed to her side. 

"Relena!" He shouted, falling to his knees by her side.

"Duo…" She said, quietly, trying to move so she could see him. She was facing Hiiro.

"No, Relena. Don't speak. It will be all right. You'll see." Duo tried to comfort her, grabbing her hand.

"Let her speak. It will not change her fate." Hiiro said, coldly. He was holding her other hand, with her head resting on his lap. Duo glared at him for a moment, but then Relena spoke, and he turned his attention back to her.

"Duo…" She strained to speak, "I'm sorry that we have to part. I had a good time with you."

"Relena!" Duo said, clasping her hand to his face, sobbing openly.

"Hiiro…" Relena whispered, "I……only……loved……you…" And she spoke no more. She had taken her hand from Duo and rested it over Hiiro's.

"I loved you too," Hiiro said, softly, almost with emotion, "Relena."

It happened so fast. In front of Duo appeared a blinding flash. It was a laser blast. It incinerated both Hiiro and Relena. The impact knocked Duo back against his Gundam. With tears streaming down his face, he fought 

the mobile suits to his own death. His Gundam was never found.

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"We have lost three of the best." Trowa said emotionlessly, surveying the battle scene before they started back, "May the world weep over our loss."

**__**

THE END


End file.
